June 20, 2011

There is a very interesting conversation going on at Slate (starting, actually, with this post on Babble) about a) who is buying the surprise internet best-seller Go the F**k to Sleep, and b) about how the book may have been less of a hit if the narrator were the mom rather than the dad.

As the parent of a sleep-challenged child, I'm right with KJ - I saw the original .pdf, laughed, posted it to Facebook, and moved on. I can't imagine actually paying cash for it and holding it in my hands.

But the real story here is her (dead on) points about gender roles. To quote the original article:

"While a mom who even thinks, “Go the fuck to sleep” is seen as morally lacking, unfit, unhinged, deranged, and hostile, a dad who thinks it is someone we want to have a beer with (or in my neighborhood, have on our bocce team)."

I can't really add anything pithy to her great analysis, so I encourage you to read the original post and the follow-ups at Slate as well.